K2 2004 started with 3 deaths before the Italian
expedition even arrived at base camp with porters dying on the trek to the mountain. Early in June four South Koreans
climbers and two Sherpas were caught in an avalanche on K2. One of the South
Koreans Climbers was OK, and both Sherpas are fine, the other three Korean
climbers were found dead at Base camp in their sleeping bags in a crevice.
According to the Korea times, the names are Lee
Hwa-hyong, 36, Kim Jae-yong, 35, and Pae Kyong-kyu, 34. All were part of the
11 members Korean team from POSCO steel.

Next, after the
first round of summits on
the 26th, 27th and 28th, the weather turned bad again
as predicted.
Unfortunately one summiter, Aleksandr Gubaev, did not make it down. "With
Davoud Khadem Asl and Sergei Sokolov, who refused to go down from Camp 4 after
the storm arrived (even as other climbers tried to convince them to do so).",
stated Alfred Schreilechner

The expedition
stated to EverestNews.com, "We can not officially confirmed
until unless the liaison officer does not get death certificate from
government authorities. If someone is unhappy with us, we can do nothing. We
have our own limitations, thus we need to be carefully before giving any news.
following are missing on K-2:"

1. Mr. Alanxander Gubaev
Krygyzstan

2. Mr. Dauoud Khadem Asl
Iranian

3. Mr. Segey Sokolov
Russian

There was no conspiracy, only some climbers who sadly,
did not come down when they should have come down. Once the weather changed, they were
gone. No amount of money or good will, could get them down. Only an effort by
themselves to find a way down was possible, in our opinion.
We were told on August 17th, when the last of the climbers were coming off K2,
"No sign of the climbers who disappeared on K2 last 28th July."

We have been in touch with many family and friends of
the Iranian climber Davoud Khadem Asl. We understand he was married to Balirea,
a Colombian, and had two young girls. As of the 15th of August, we were told,
"No one of them in the expedition has contacted her!!" This is sad. Please
any climbers who knew Davoud Khadem Asl, please e-mail
and
we will put you in touch with the family and friends.

Next, Manel de la Matta
dies on the way down at camp 1 after turning around up high with Oscar
Cadiach. Jordi Corominas summited on his team. They were on the
Magic line.

We continue to get
questions about Sergey Bogomolov. We understand several web sites reported that the famous
Russian climber Sergey Bogomolov was missing on K2. This is totally FALSE.

In the year when K2 was like Everest, with
hundreds of climbers, and Sherpas en masse, 7 climbers did not come home....